Who are most important picks in Bucs draft history?

(Thursday night’s opening round of the draft will be the 43rd in Buccaneers history. So, we asked the historical authority on all things Bucs’ football, Paul Stewart of Bucpower.com in London, to give his insight on the most important picks in franchise history. Enjoy!)

The all time best Buccaneer draft picks

When it comes to the best draft days that the Tampa Bay Buccaneers have had in their history, you have to look at the first, the best and the most. Because these are what sums up the drafts that Buc fans can look back on with pride and happiness.

So forgetting the non-arrival of Bo Jackson, the awful selections of Eric Curry and Keith McCants, the terrible misses on Charles McRae and Booker Reese and the high picks traded away for next to nothing, the rose-colored glasses are not needed when it comes to selecting the most outstanding draft choices in franchise history.

When it comes to the best, you move only nearly two decades to 1995 and the first round selections of DE Warren Sapp and LB Derrick Brooks. Two Hall of Famers in the same draft is truly outstanding but the duo helped changed the course of the franchise from the moribund years of the 1980s and early 1990s and were both part of the Super Bowl winning team in January 2003. The Bucs had to rely on some smart trading to acquire the 12th and 28th overall selections used to take their two defensive stars as well as other teams passing on the controversial Sapp and seemingly-undersized Brooks.

The Most

For the most, then you go back to 1987. Two straight 2-14 seasons under Coach Leeman Bennett had led the Buccaneers totally devoid of talent and new coach Ray Perkins used a multitude of picks to re-stock his roster. Whilst the first overall selection of QB Vinny Testaverde can still be debated, the 3rd and 4th rounds saw the arrival of an entire receiving corps in WR Mark Carrier, WR Bruce Hill and TE Ron Hall. Carrier remains the franchise’s all-time leading receiver and the Bucs added five other starters from that draft as well as future NFL offensive co-ordinator Mike Shula as a 12th round QB selection.

There have been some excellent late round picks in Buccaneer history, NT David Logan in the 12th round in 1979 and WR Gerald Carter in the 9th round a year later. There are also draft disasters such as taking a punter in the 4th round in 1988 (Monte Robbins) who never even made the team. And this is before you get into the realms of the actual draft busts whose performances did not live up to their selections.

Whoever the Buccaneers draft in 2018, the scrutiny will begin and the spotlight be upon them when the season starts later this year. If Coach Dirk Koetter’s team are to return to post-season football for the first time since 2007, they need some of this year’s choices to live up to the standard set by some of the great picks that preceeded them.

Is the FitzMagic Show Over?

I think I know now why Buccaneers coach Dirk Koetter stuck with Ryan Fitzpatrick at QB for Sunday’s game against the Giants. It seems the plan all along was to stick with Fitz until he exceeded Jameis Winston’s pick total.

That would make a move back to Winston seem warranted and to the surprise of few, Fitzpatrick obliged on Sunday by throwing three picks, including a pick-six, during a 38-35 loss at Giants Stadium.

That brought Fitzpatrick’s season pick total to 12, two more than Winston, and so FitzMagic is gone. His magic touch has been gone for a while, but now he and his magic touch are gone for good. Unless they’re not.

You never know with these Bucs, so let’s break this one down.

Let’s start with Winston, whose redemption tour began in fine fashion. After replacing Fitzpatrick early in the third quarter he engineered four straight scoring drives to give the Bucs hope in a game in which all hope seemed lost.

It wasn’t always pretty. Winston got lucky when Mike Evans fell on his fumble in the end zone at the end of his first drive and got lucky a couple more times when the butterfingered Giants couldn’t hold on to a couple of tipped passes.

But Winston was more good than bad and was at times spectacular in completing 12 of 15 passes for 199 yards and two touchdown tosses before a last-ditch throw wound up in the Giants hands with 13 seconds left.

Not only that, but the return of Winston to the lineup Sunday seemed to bring a sense of normalcy to this team, a feeling that this is how it’s supposed to be, how it was supposed to be all along.

Nov 18, 2018; East Rutherford, NJ, USA; Tampa Bay Buccaneers quarterback Jameis Winston (3) drops back to pass during the second half against the New York Giants at MetLife Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Vincent Carchietta-USA TODAY Sports

Like Winston a few weeks ago, Fitzpatrick more than earned his place on the bench. His three picks Sunday gave him seven in the three games he started ahead of Winston and they came at critical junctures.

The first came on a throw from his own 30-yard line, which means it wiped out a scoring chance. The second was a pick-six and the third was simply thrown up for grabs at a point when the Bucs still had time to rally.

Oh, and let’s not forget that the Bucs caught a break when the Giants didn’t challenge a would-be Fitzpatrick fumble on second-and-11 from the Giants 15 early in the game.

At the end of the day, Fitzpatrick’s giveaways led to 10 points for the Giants, and the Bucs wound up losing by three. It’s easy to say then that without those picks, the Bucs could have easily won.

The defense never had a chance in this one. Before the game even started, the Bucs were without linebackers Kwon Alexander and Lavonte David, safeties Justin Evans and Chris Conte, cornerback Vernon Hargreaves III and defensive lineman Vinny Curry.

That’s more than half this team’s projected starters on that side of the ball, and nowhere are the Bucs thinner than on defense, where they just don’t have enough quality depth, particularly in the secondary.

Throw on top of that the fact that the Bucs spent the bulk of the first half blowing their gap assignments in the running game and it’s no wonder they spent the day playing catchup.

They mostly struggled to stop Barkley, who ran 27 times for 142 yards and two touchdowns, but they were equally ineffective against quarterback Eli Manning, who matched a career-best start by completing each of his first 11 passes for 128 yards and a touchdown.

For one week at least, the kicker wasn’t an issue. Cairo Santos, who was brought in this week to replace Chandler Catanazaro, who was finally fired after missing two more field goal tries last week, five for five on PATs. He did not attempt a field goal.

Tampa Bay ran 12 plays last week in the red zone and had -8 yards to show for them. That has to be better against a Giant defense that has been vulnerable. Some of that is the fault of QB Ryan Fitzpatrick (above), who has five turnovers in the last two Bucs games, and two of those were inside the opponent’s 20 last week.

Further, in their last three games the Bucs are 27th in red zone touchdown percentage converting on just 41.6% of them.

It’s Not the Only key for the Buccaneers offense, but if they get inside the 20 yard line, it’s a big one.

Final injury updates for Bucs and Jaguars Sunday games

As the Buccaneers get set to head to New York to play the Giants and the Jaguars are preparing to host the Steelers Sunday, it’s time to take a look at the injuries in those two games. (Reminder the Dolphins have their bye week for this weekend.)

Here’s a look at the latest:

For the Bucs, there Friday injury report has defensive names littered all over it and the news is not good for some of them.

The Bucs also list their receiver Chris Godwin as questionable with an ankle injury, and another important injury is starting center Ryan Jensen, who’s questionable with a hamstring injury. If Jensen is unable to play Sunday, then Ali Marpet, starting at left guard this year, but who played center a lot of 2017, would likely take his place.

The Buccaneers opponents, the Giants, had four players on their injury list this week, but all of them are now slated to play in the game on Sunday.

For the Jaguars match-up, they have two significant injuries to update, starting linebacker Telvin Smith was able to practice this week with his shoulder injury and is listed as questionable, but expected to play against Pittsburgh. There is concern for defensive tackle Marcell Dareus with a triceps injury and he is also listed as questionable. Dareus will likely be a game time decision.

Defensive back A.J. Bouye has been bothered by a calf injury, but he is also expected to play after being able to practice Thursday and Friday and listed as questionable. Coach Doug Marrone also announced that tackle Erik Flowers, who left last week’s game with tendonitis in his knee will start on the makeshift Jaguars line.

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